The present invention is a positioning system adapted for guiding a cutting tool for a portable machine tool such as a router with respect to a workpiece for the purpose of machining the workpiece. The invention is particularly well adapted for use with a router, laminate trimmer or the like as an edge guide, but it is not limited to such use.
Edge guides are commonly used with portable power tools such as routers, for example, to keep an unpiloted router bit square or parallel to the edge of a workpiece. Typically, a straight fence rides along an edge of the workpiece, starting the cut at one end of the workpiece, and drawing the fence along the edge. Such a router attachment allows edge forming cuts to be made using bits without pilots. An edge guide also is commonly used to make grooves, dadoes, and decorative cuts parallel to the edge of the work.
Most routers are made with provisions for mounting edge guides and other accessories. Typical prior art edge guides employ guide rods that are inserted into predrilled holes in the tool's base plate and serve to both secure the edge guide assembly to the tool, as well as to secure and position the guide fence in relation to the workpiece and the router bit or other cutter.
Such prior art systems that rely on guide rods to secure and position the guide fence are often subject to unbalanced adjustment forces and often are undesirably flexible, causing an unstable system during adjustment or use.
Through a design based on a rigid slide beam, the present invention eliminates such disadvantages and provides a positioning system having more solid and stable positioning of the guide fence or other accessory to the router.